It was a trying day today when I had to take two ewes in for a checkup. Maria is having issues with a hard udder, I was not sure of the cause and her babies seemed so hungry. I also noticed she has 2 extra teats, smaller and in the front, so was not sure if that was an issue.
The vet checked her out, temperature normal, but yes udder very hard. She ultrasounded the udder and found a lot of density to it, not fluid, and no milk. So we let her stand without her babies for an hour to get some milk in there and once we ultrasounded again the udder anatomy looked ok, to the two main teats, milk was now in there so she is producing some. So we treated her for edema, will do compresses and medication to take the edema down, and hopefully she will soften up and be able to feed her babies again.
The second ewe was Kole, she has been off since 5 days before lambing, very lethargic and just off. Then 3 days ago I saw a rapid decline in her eating with her not touching any food at all yesterday. So the vet checked her out, blood sample taken, and an elevated temperature. Also severe anemia. The vet says the amemia is regenerative, so she is still building red blood cells just not keeping up with whatever is causing her to bleed, so the diagnosis is uterine infection with anemia. So she is on new cells to build up her red blood cells again, and antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Hopefully that will perk her up and she can start eating again.
We are pulling her babies to take that stress of nursing away from her, so more bottle babies makes the kids happy. :) Just hoping that Kole pulls through for us.
The vet checked her out, temperature normal, but yes udder very hard. She ultrasounded the udder and found a lot of density to it, not fluid, and no milk. So we let her stand without her babies for an hour to get some milk in there and once we ultrasounded again the udder anatomy looked ok, to the two main teats, milk was now in there so she is producing some. So we treated her for edema, will do compresses and medication to take the edema down, and hopefully she will soften up and be able to feed her babies again.
The second ewe was Kole, she has been off since 5 days before lambing, very lethargic and just off. Then 3 days ago I saw a rapid decline in her eating with her not touching any food at all yesterday. So the vet checked her out, blood sample taken, and an elevated temperature. Also severe anemia. The vet says the amemia is regenerative, so she is still building red blood cells just not keeping up with whatever is causing her to bleed, so the diagnosis is uterine infection with anemia. So she is on new cells to build up her red blood cells again, and antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Hopefully that will perk her up and she can start eating again.
We are pulling her babies to take that stress of nursing away from her, so more bottle babies makes the kids happy. :) Just hoping that Kole pulls through for us.